Donna, In Illinois, death certs are not available after the year 1948 - unless you are a relative of that person. Then you have to go to the county in which the cert was issued and show your relationship to that person before they give you a copy of the cert... Sorry... See _http://cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html_ (http://cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html) for a list of searchable indexes and the available years. Of course, if you want a cert looked up in Illinois for 1916 - 1948, I can recommend two excellent resources: Molly -- _www.Mollx.com_ (http://www.Mollx.com) Molly will get you a copy of a death cert for about $4. You get the cert in a week. Cynthia -- _www.chicagogenealogy.com_ (http://www.chicagogenealogy.com) Cynthia can get you a copy of the death cert also, for, I think, the same price. You get the cert in about a week. Otherwise, you can go through the state of Illinois and pay about $20.00 and it takes up to 6 months to get the cert Good luck to you! Genealogyangel